Mcdonald Case Study

McDonald’s: On a Customer-Focused Mission More than half a century ago, Ray Kroc, a 52-year-old salesman of milk-shake-mixing machines, set out on a mission to transform the way Americans eat. Kroc bought a chain of seven stores already existing for $2. 7 million. From the start, Kroc preached a motto of QSCV—quality, service, cleanliness, and value. These goals became mainstays in McDonald’s customer-focused mission statement.Applying these values, the company perfected the fast-food concept—delivering convenient, good-quality food at affordable prices. McDonald’s grew quickly to become the world’s largest fast-feeder. The fast-food giant’s more than 32,000 restaurants worldwide now serve 60 million customers each day, racking up system-wide sales of more than $79 billion annually. In the mid-1990s, however, McDonald’s fortunes began to turn. The company appeared to fall out of touch with both its mission and its customers.Amer icans were looking for fresher, better-tasting food and more contemporary atmospheres. They were also seeking healthier eating options. In a new age of health-conscious consumers and $3 muffin and coffee at Starbucks, McDonald’s seemed a bit out of step with the times. McDonald’s was struggling to find its identity among its competitors and changing consumer tastes. The company careened from one failed idea to another. It tried to keep pace. None of these things worked.However, McDonald’s continued opening new restaurants at a ferocious pace, as many as 2,000per year. The new stores helped sales, but customer service and cleanliness declined because the company couldn’t hire and train good workers fast enough. Meanwhile, McDonald’s increasingly became a target for animal-rights activists, environmentalists, and nutritionists, who accused the chain of contributing to the nation’s obesity epidemic with â€Å"super size† French fries and sodas as well as Happy Meals that lure kids with the reward of free toys.Although McDonald’s remained the world’s most visited fast-food chain, sales growth slumped, and its market share fell by more than 3 percent between 1997 and 2003. In 2002, the company posted its first-ever quarterly loss. In early 2003, a troubled McDonald’s announced a turnaround plan—what it now calls its â€Å"Plan to Win. † At the heart of this plan was a new mission statement that refocused the company on its customers. The company’s mission was changed from â€Å"being the world’s best quick-service restaurant† to â€Å"being our customers’ favorite place and way to eat.The new plan centered on five basics of an exceptional customer experience: people, products, place, price, and promotion. Under the Plan to Win, the goal was to get â€Å"better, not just bigger. † The company invested in improving the food, the service, the atmosph ere, and marketing at existing outlets. McDonald’s redecorated its restaurants with clean, simple, more-modern interiors and amenities such as live plants, wireless Internet access, and flat-screen TVs showing cable news.Play areas in some new restaurants now feature video games and even stationary bicycles with video screens. To make the customer experience more convenient, McDonald’s stores now open earlier to extend breakfast hours and stay open longer to serve late-night diners—more than one-third of McDonald’s restaurants are now open 24 hours a day. Moreover, MacDonald added healthier options, such as Chicken McNuggets made with white meat, a line of Snack Wraps, low-fat â€Å"milk jugs,† apple slices, Premium Salads.In 2008, when the stock market lost one-third of its value—the worst loss since the Great Depression— McDonald’s stock gained nearly 6 percent. Through 2010, as the economy and the restaurant industry as a wh ole continued to struggle, McDonald’s outperformed its competitors by a notable margin. QUESTIONS 1. What are the main environmental factors that affected MacDonald marketing strategy and way of doing business? 2. How MacDonald responded to the changing environment? (How these changes affected its marketing mix? )

Global Analysis

Globalization has been impacting and changing countries' economies, cultures, and politics. In this research, we Just focus on the impacts of globalization on the economies of countries over the world. In term of economy, there are not borders between countries. Laborers and goods are exchanged between countries, which leads to not only the competitions between corporations of countries, but also the competitions between laborers.Countries around the world gain a lot of opportunities as well as challenges when applying globalization strategy. There are a lot of ways to define the terminology globalization. According to the book named International Management edition 8th (The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2012- p. 6), globalization can be defined as the process of social, political, economic, cultural, and technological integration among countries around the world. Globalization is also defined as the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, prod ucts, ideas, and other aspects of culture.The appearance of globalization creates many chances and challenges for many countries around the world. To clarify the importance of globalization as well as its impacts on the economies of countries around the world, we need to response and analyze the following questions: 1 . How has globalization changed competition in businesses? 2. How has globalization changed the work environment within companies? 3. How has globalization changed career opportunities for the current generation? 4. How can you take advantage of globalization in your career plans?To answer completely those questions and to analyze profoundly the results of globalization can help us clarify the impact of globalization on the countries' economies and their laborers. How has globalization changed competition in businesses? A business with local laborers or with domestic technologies only creates local products and low revenues. The appearance of the globalization in a bus iness makes the laborers in that business become variable, and leads to the using of foreign and modern technologies in operating that business.The using of foreign laborers will decrease the cost of producing. Therefore, the cost of a complete product will completely decrease. As we see, corporations not only compete by paying high salary for employees, but also compete in finding new and cheap laborer markets which are Asian markets, especially India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. The proof of competing in business by exploiting foreign labor is the hiring China's workers of manufacturing Apple's devices. Apple Inc. Gains competitiveness over other corporations by making use of China laborers.The laborers in China are very cheap and crowded. Therefore, Apple Inc. Can produce tons of its devices at very cheap prices. Another example is related to textile industry. Many big and famous fashion brands such as Tommy, Nautical, Nikkei, or Aids make use of foreign textile corporations in India, Bangladesh or Vietnam. The using of foreign laborers of those famous brands also creates the competitiveness between hired textile corporations. That is the competitiveness of the salary, work condition, and insurance policies for employees between hired textile corporations.Globalization also creates the technological competitiveness between corporations. Nowadays, consumers are interested in online shopping because it is comfortable, cheap, and fast. Therefore, online retailers or sale corporations always improve their technologies to satisfy the demands of consumers. The development of technologies leads to the development of the consumers' demands. More and more consumers around the world desire to shop internationally, and therefore multinational retailers also develop their information systems to provide their customers with qualified products in timely manner.According to a consumer survey, ninety six percent of responders say they shop online for convenience. Eigh ty percent of them shop online for price, and eighty nine percent of them think that shopping online is easier than shopping in person. As we see, the demand of shopping online is so huge, therefore the competitiveness between domestic or overseas retailers is really stressful. As we know, there are any organizations related to globalization, such as World Trade Organization (WTFO), Europe Union (ELI). The countries in those organizations are freely tariff to exchange products.Therefore corporations in those countries also compete to survive in the market. They create a new competitiveness, local corporations against foreign corporations. How has globalization changed the work environment within companies? Along with the change of competitive in businesses, globalization changes the work environment within companies. Globalization brings companies employees who come from many countries around the world. Those employees have different cultures, life styles and ethics. In multinationa l companies employees and managers have to find the common characters to work with each other.Managers will feel a little difficult to announce a policy, or employees feel weird when they corporate with their colleagues. Those are challenges which managers and employees have to deal with while working in a multinational companies. Globalization also improves the condition of working in companies which locate in developing countries. For example, when some famous fashion corporations want to have textile corporations in Vietnam recess their clothes, those famous corporations always require textile corporations in Vietnam that the employees have to work in a cool place, or clean air.Employees have to be bought insurance, or employees have to be completely protected when disasters occur. As we can see, globalization partly develops the working place within companies. In addition, globalization changes some common behaviors of someone in companies. In multinational companies, there are employees coming from different backgrounds. Therefore, employees have to learn the difference of cultures f the other to have accurate behaviors, and to exclude discrimination or racist. There are a lot of things changed in workplace when globalization appears.They are the changes of work conditions, salaries, and behaviors of employees. How has globalization changed career opportunities for the current generation? When globalization appears, there are many challenges as well as opportunities for the current generation. Current generation will have many choices for their careers because there are a lot of companies around the world waiting for them. People who come from the U. S or Europe will easily get the Job from international companies cause they are well educated and really active.In Asia, current generation also has a great chance to pick their Jobs themselves because there are a lot of foreign companies investing in this continent. Especially in China, Vietnam, India, or In donesia, young laborers have great opportunities to be admitted in multinational companies. Young laborers in Asia are patient, hard-working, and they often admit the low salary standard compared to the salary of laborers in the U. S. Therefore, multinational companies really like to hire Asian laborers. Because of that situation, some other young local laborers will be in trouble.They will be unemployed because of other cheap, good, and patient laborers. In short, globalization brings huge opportunities career for those who are active, quickly adopted, and qualified. It also makes some trouble for laborers who are not updated and well trained. How can you take advantage of globalization in your career plans? To be an international student, I think I am a quickly adopted person. Therefore globalization helps me have more chances to be admitted in multinational companies. I intend to work for an American company. I think they need someone productive, and active like me.In addition, t here are many U. S companies in Vietnam, and I believe that they need someone who has the experience in the U. S working styles and has the Asian background to adopt in Vietnam workplace. I think that globalization brings me a chance to work in multinational companies which locate in my country. I intend to work for a multinational company, and I really want to proceed it in my country. In my opinion, globalization helps me to proceed it. As we can see globalization has a great impact on the economy. It changes the competitive in business, the work environment, and impacts on current generation.Globalization is the good chance for developing countries to integrate in the world, and it is also the challenge for develop countries to compete against emerging markets of developing countries.

Leadership and Power with Teenagers Essay

Communication between patients and health care providers has always been an important topic. Specifically communication between teenagers and health care professionals, a study conducted by Jacobson and others (2001), shows that there has not been much research that specifically show how teenagers relate to the health services. Using the communication aspects of that study, the description of group dynamics shown in the textbook and the assigned readings, we will try to show a more effective way to communicate with teenagers as a health care professional. Power in a Group With few exceptions, most teenagers feel the need to belong to a group. For a teenager group dynamics help to define his or her identity. If we can understand how group dynamics work, we can then use that information to develop a strategy to help us as health care professionals communicate effectively with teenagers. Adler (2010) defines power as â€Å"the ability to influence others† (p. 308). There are many ways to influence other people using the different types of power. We will review a few of them in order to get a better understanding of what level of power we can have in a group. We will not be discussing if the â€Å"power† or level of influence in the group is used for good or bad, only that it is present. Legitimate Power Legitimate power is defined as power received because of title or position. A parent, a teacher or, in our case, a nurse or paramedic, has this kind of power when first approaching a patient. This kind of power is usually acquired through an authority that is recognized by society. We accept this authority because they have a position above us in the chain of command. The end result is the person with the power has the major influence. As a nurse or a paramedic, the uniform, the tools we use and even the environment we are in, are common ways that people recognize our title, is also highlights power and influence that comes with our title. This allows us to approach a patient and get their attention so we can begin their assessment and treatment. Expert Power Expert power comes from what lies behind the title; perceived knowledge â€Å"what we believe that they know or can do†(Adler, 2010, pg. 385). Nurses and paramedics are excellent examples of expert power. We respect their authority not because we know his or her personal background, what university they graduated from or how much experience that they have, but because the person has a professional title that we know has to be earned. This earned title means that the professional has certain level of knowledge in health field and we are more likely to follow their instructions because of it. After we present ourselves as a nurse or paramedic, it is our job to confirm the first impression caused by our uniform and shows the patient that we know how to do our jobs. Once we are assessing the patient it is important to demonstrate our medical knowledge and the experience we have while performing procedures. We do this in order to make the patient feel more comfortable with us and give them more confidence in communicating with us about their current condition. Referent Power Referent power comes from the interactions with the members of a group. It is not bestowed upon a person like the legitimate power and it is not related to the power a person gets because of their knowledge in a particular subject like expert power. The referent power is earned because of the respect that person has earned from the group. There are many important factors that we need to be considering when earning this kind of power; earning trust and admiration of the group member’s and likability, all take part in gaining this kind of power. Leadership is the word that best describes referent power. When a person becomes a leader, they support and push the group toward a common goal that is the best for everyone. Leadership is a skill, not a quality; nurses or paramedics need to develop this skill to have a better have a way to communicate with our colleagues and patients, especially our teenaged ones. Losing referent power. When a leader fails to be an effective, the ineffective leaser will lose the referent power they had gained. In one study a teenager was asked how they felt while talking to a doctor, they described there interpretation of a doctor as â€Å"an authority figure who communicated briskly† (Jacobson, October 2001, p. 813). This statement show the failure in meeting a teenagers need to. The results of the study show that most teenagers don’t trust their trust and respect their health care professional. The results of the study show that most teenagers don’t trust there health care professionals and this can lead to them failing to disclose important medical information. Communicating with a Teenager Patient Legitimate, expert and referent power demonstrate a persons ability to gain power and influence within a group. Returning to our main topic, we know that teenagers have a group mentality. This means that one way to get and maintain their respect is to use referent power. By using the skills of a leader, we are much better to able to connect and to build relationship with out teenaged patients. When we first have contact with a patient we inherently have both legitimate and expert power with us; then begin to develop the referent power and earn the trust and respect of that patient. If we are successful the patient will cooperate with us and we will have a good and open communication. This works for almost every patient, but if the patient is a teenager, we also have one extra challenge, time. Teenagers usually make quick decisions; they don’t usually take the time to consider all ramifications or consequences of their choices. We have to make sure they know we are there to help them and that they are important to us as a person. To earn their trust, they have to feel like they are being treated as an adult, not like another bratty teen and this must be accomplished in a short period of time due to the teenager’s tendency towards quick decisions To summarize, we have described a few of the different types of power a person can have in a group, legitimate, expert and referent. Then we further explained how you go from legitimate and expert power to the referent in your dealing with teenaged patient and how using referent power and being a leader is always your best option. This is so not only can we work better with them but we can do a better job as a health care providers overall. References Adler, R. & Rodman, G. (2006). Understanding Human Communication. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press. Jacobson, L. Richardson, G. Parry-Langdon, N. Donovan, C. (October 2001). How do teenagers and primary healthcare providers view each other? An overview of key themes. The British Journal of General Practice, 51(471): 811–816. PMCID: PMC1314126 Sieh, A.& Bretin, L. (1997). The Nurse Communicates†¦ (pp. 85-102). Philadelphia, PA. WB Saunders Company.

Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only Essay

Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only lost revenue but damaged reputations and lost custom. Yo - Essay Example Any cyber security program strives to ensure these four fundamental cyber security components. Information confidentiality enables the organization’s sensitive information to be a secret so that it does not fall into the hands of unauthorized persons for example the competitors. Information integrity ensures that the data that is stored is accurate and serves the purpose and is always up to date. Data availability enables information to be present any time the organization required. This is by preventing any vulnerability for example denial of service. This can give the competitor firm an avenue of bringing down the company by capitalizing on the weakness of the other company and at the same time enhancing its strength. The investigation was conducted by administering questionnaire to cyber security experts of various organizations. Interviews were also conducted with CISO of both business and non profit organizations. In addition, a thorough review of the existing literature on cyber threats and cyber security was conducted. Table of Contents Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only lost revenue but damaged reputations and lost custom. Your task is to investigate the need for cyber security and analyze the threats from which it protects business. ... A cyber security is a basis or the foundation of organization’s security for its information assets. Cyber attacks are a deliberate or unintentional unauthorized task, which cannot be avoided or is in avoidable that that is capable of causing a vagary on the cyberspace resources. The scope of cyber attack is expands from hardware, software, data that is stored, data in transit, people, documents and other hardware needed like printer cartridges. Findings and Analysis The organization information system is a critical asset that calls for utmost security. For instance, employee’s personal identification information, development plan and financial data are very critical to an organization. This information can fall into two broad categories. There are information that are secured or protected by the state and federal law and those that are based on contractual obligation (Jue 2012). The deliberate or accidental exposure of this information to illegal personnel can be detri mental to the university. The different types of attack that are detriment to cyber security are Threats targeting infrastructure (Invalidated input) Problem and situation The most prevalent threat to client computers is Keylogging and spyware. This is a malware that is built to illegally obtain, track and block the right of a user to get access to the system. An example of this attack is where someone or an individual tries to log on to the system or a website like an email account but the system or the site fails to authenticate the user. This threat is related to backdoor attack command. These are weapons that give remote access that are created to divert the functionality of the system.

Corporal Pushment In Children Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Corporal Pushment In Children - Research Paper Example Some countries and states have legalized corporal punishment; however, in some states and countries, corporal punishment is banned. This paper discusses the issue of corporal punishment in detail. Corporal Punishment on Children Karem De Gouveia Mr. Roycraft ENC 1101- T November 15, 2011 De Gouveia i Outline I- Introduction Thesis: Corporal punishment as a sort of physical punishment is legalized in some states of the world while other states regard it disadvantageous for the children’s physical and mental growing up. II- Definition of Corporal Punishment A. Characteristics of physical abuse B. The goal of corporal punishment III- Kinds of Corporal Punishment A. Domestic punishment B. How is the corporal punishment in the judicial system IV- Views of Different Schools of Thoughts A. Different views on corporal punishment. B. The point of view in the state of Texas C. As per the law of New Hampshire V- Impact of Corporal Punishment on Children A. Positive Impact B. Negative Imp act De Gouveia 1 Corporal Punishment in Children Physical abuse of children at the hands of their parents and / or guardian is considered corporal punishment. It is considered as a sort of constructive punishment inflicted upon children to discipline them. In many developed countries of the world, parents / guardians cannot be prosecuted for physical assault under their laws. Even in the developing countries, there is no law which makes parents / guardians answer to the law enforcing agencies for spanking or slapping their children. Physical abuse is a part of corporal punishment. According to Gershoff (2002), â€Å"Physical abuse is characterized by the infliction of physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child. The parent and caretaker may not have intended to hurt the child; rather the injury may have resulted from over- discipline or physical punishment.† (pp. 540). Regardless, if there was an intention t o hurt the child or not, the child was hurt, and it can be considered physical abuse. Corporal punishment by its nature comprises domestic, academic and judicial punishments. Domestic punishment means children receive punishment from parents / guardian. With regard to academic institutions, students are punished by teachers / administrators at the elementary level. In the judicial system, corporal punishment is applied upon prisoners by the De Gouveia 2 superintendent of prison and other associated officials in line with the judgment of the court. The goal of corporal punishment is to place the people on the right track. It differs from people to people in terms of age. As far as the children are concerned, the parental corporal punishment proves effective at the initial period of life of a child if he / she is below the age of eighteen. To make a child good in behavior, he or she should be intimated for corporal punishment or corporal punishment should be inflicted upon as the expe rience may be. This has been legal in many schools of United States of America. However, Canada, Kenya, Korea, South Africa, New Zealand, Europe except France are exempted from such punishment. It has virtually vanished from the western world. However, it can be seen in Africa and Asia. (Straus & Donnelly 27) Different schools of thought may have different views on corporal punishment, but they agree on one thing that is the necessity to repair the attitudes of children. However, the method of causing harm may vary from

HR Hiring and retention Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

HR Hiring and retention - Term Paper Example stake that an employer can make is to leave a job vacancy unoccupied as he or she continues to hope that the perfect person will eventually be found to fill in this position. In reality, the best candidates in the job market find jobs opportunities within a short time and thus will not be going to numerous interviews, as they will easily secure the jobs they want without going through numerous interviews. It is important to note that there are many other people with an ability to fill the position and may even fit into the company in a better way than the perceived perfect candidate may. In the process of hiring managers also have to abide by a strict budget and this means that there is a chance the perfect will not agree with the terms, however, this does not imply that managers should therefore settle for employees with lower qualifications. Instead, they should remain practical in the process of searching for the most suitable employee. Hunting for the best employee involves a num ber of steps that will ensure that the process of recruitment and hiring is done at the top level. One of the steps involves developing a hiring strategy , which regardless of whether all the positions are full at the present, has to be identified in order to know the manner in which the future employees will be found so that the process can be smooth. A good business should always have knowledge of the way it will seek candidates to fill positions and this means it should come up with a plan that will be in place in the event that a vacancy arises. Another step involves focusing more on training, as through training the workers in the appropriate manner, the company will not have to worry about the recruitment of candidates in the future since most of the employees will be retained at the company. The workers will also be happier and more motivated when they have a good understanding of the activities they are supposed to undertake and how they increase the productivity of the

In The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism, humor, and Essay

In The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allen Poe uses symbolism, humor, and irony to develop his theme of how Fortunato's foolishness costed him his life - Essay Example Though originally used as a mere instrument by which the story could take off, it takes on a life of its own as it symbolizes the perceived wealth and success in life of its owner. It is a symbol that Fortunato refuses to believes exists but then with his curiosity getting the better of him, he embarks down a path which symbolized his ultimate doom. A more important perhaps to the story is the way that Fortunato is dressed as a court jester during the carnival. As everyone knows, a court jester is someone who is the life of the court. He makes people laugh by making fun of other people. This costume symbolizes the very personality of Fortunato, which is the happy-go-lucky type of person who unfortunately, tends to say or do things that he may not realize slights those around him as what happened unknowingly between him and Montresor. The story also makes good use of humor in the statement â€Å"Luchresi doesnt know Amontillado from a Sherry". It would seem that as far as the social circle that Fortunato and Montresor move in, Luchresi fancies himself a wine conneseiur although his actions betray him as a pretender. Hence the laughter and comedic intonation in the dialogue between the friends. However funny the statement is though, it is still considered by Montresor to be an additional slight upon his person since he believes Luchresi to be a man knowledgable about wines and sherrys. Finally, we come to an analysis of the names and settings used by Poe in the story. I would like to begin with the discussion regarding his choice of the name Fortunato for his doomed character. It is truly ironic that the name Fortunato actually means a man blessed with good fortune in life. Fortunato met the exact opposite during his lifetime. Fortunato has only the worst of luck as he died a horrifying and secret death at the hands of the man he considered a trustworthy friend, Montresor. Then we have the irony of the two settings used for the story, the carnival masquerade